New attitudes would help bicycling's golden age

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Pull up at any busy intersection where bikes and cars meet, and it's often a free-for-all. Pedalers shoot through red lights and blow stop signs. Drivers honk, shout and swerve into bike lanes. It's clear that the city's official encouragement of bicycling has not be accompanied by sufficient respect for the law, by cyclists or motorists.

A civil grand jury report found that police avoid bike-versus-car disputes because of San Francisco's mixed-up feelings: We want more people to ride but don't want to crack down on bike-messenger riding habits. Barely 1 percent of the 204,673 traffic citations written last year went to cyclists for violations such as running lights, riding on sidewalks and "salmoning" or pedaling the wrong direction on a one-way street. Neither drivers nor riders are protected by this no-rules environment.

Along with enforcement, there needs to be education. Riders are allowed the full use of driving lanes, the same as any vehicle, though few drivers can stem their impatience at a dawdling rider taking up the full road. The city's network of lanes and suggested riding streets is little known, one side-effect of an obstructionist lawsuit that delayed bike lane work for four years until this year. The learning curve has barely begun.

Unless more is done in these areas, the grand jury warned, "serious mistrust, conflict, and misunderstandings" will continue to be the rule and undermine a promising program. The word has to get out about both personal rights, restrictions and travel options.

Such attitude and behaviorial changes are essential to establishing what should be a golden age of bike riding in San Francisco. Ridership is up over 50 percent in four years. White paint is going down on 31 more miles of bike lanes on top of 48 miles already striped. A regional system will soon roll out 500 rental bikes across the city.

The surge is fueled by a generational change in a city where young people flock to live in the South of Market, Hayes Valley and Mission neighborhoods, all flat areas where bike riding makes sense. But the city's also a car-clogged place dotted with steep hills, narrow streets and distant neighborhoods where riding is less of an option.

In encouraging more riding - as a 190-page official bike plan does - the city needs to be better prepared. It has begun a five-year, $25 million program bringing more lanes, parking spots and other traffic changes. But there are missing ingredients: law enforcement and public awareness.

But there's no question that bike riding has taken hold and bloomed. Riding to work, while about 3 percent of the total commute, is rising year by the year. The city has a bike-riding goal of 20 percent of the transportation-to-work pool in 10 years.

This target may sound high, but it's easy to see understand why riders and city officials are in agreement. Bikes are cheap, enviro-friendly and healthy. They don't need a vast infrastructure such as fleets of Muni buses, costly freeways or armies of workers to run things. In a city facing a $400 million deficit, bike riding is a nearly free transit option, one that will grow if Muni service is depleted further.

One example of a bike-influenced thoroughfare is Valencia Street, redone recently to add bike lanes amid little protest in a neighborhood filled with cycling shops, young people and flat pavement. The bike traffic feeds into Market Street, which has become a test lab for bike riding, ranging from pot-holed plain-Jane sections to green-painted bike-only lanes alongside Muni tracks. The city is due to remake Market in the next few years with a plan that will be a major test of bike riding's appeal and promise.

Market is already one of the busiest bike-riding pathways in the country, according to Andy Thornley, program director for the Bicycle Coalition. His group has grown from 5,000 members to 12,000 in five years, making the organization a political force via election endorsements and courting of City Hall decision-makers.

On its website, the bike group offers its own futuristic image of San Francisco that includes crosstown bike lanes, a waterfront bridge and even a conveyor-belt-style lift that hauls bikers up steep hills.

Cycling's rising popularity doesn't make it immune to opposition. Other cities, notably New York, have faced revolt and taken out bike lanes where neighbors, drivers and merchants objected. No such rebellion has happened here, perhaps because an expansion of bike programs was held up by legal delays and is only now rolling out.

Bond Yee, the director of sustainable streets for the Municipal Transportation Agency, suggested another reason. The city's famously drawn-out policymaking, built around hearings and lengthy comment periods, has accommodated most objections. "We're getting very little negative pushback," Yee said.

San Francisco clearly wants to accommodate bike riding in a major way. But it must be accompanied by a recognition that bicyclists must follow the rules - and San Francisco police should be willing to enforce them.

This article appeared on page E - 10 of the San Francisco Chronicle


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